Typecast? Calgary singer Jann Arden plays a strange version of herself in new CTV sitcom

There was a recurring if good-natured debate on the rural Alberta set of CTV’s new comedy Jann back in October.

In interviews with cast and producers and again during a press conference held for the assembled journalists, it came up time and time again. Calgary singer-songwriter Jann Arden, who plays a fictionalized version of herself in the series, would insist that she is not really an actress. Her co-stars, her producers, her director — even her acting coach — would insist that she is.

On that particular day, there was plenty of evidence to support the latter theory. Journalists were invited to watch two scenes being shot near Bragg Creek for the last couple of episodes in the series, which begins airing on March 20. The first made good use of Arden’s well-established knack for comedy, as Jann becomes increasingly flustered by the simple domestic task of properly folding a bed sheet.

But the other was an intimate, dramatic moment involving a conversation between Jann and her mother, Nora (Deborah Grover). In a quietly effective scene, Nora acknowledges her fading memory and reveals a dawning awareness of the dementia that is slowly overwhelming her. It’s a sad moment, filled with pathos and a few tears. For Arden, whose mother would pass away less than three months later after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s, it was not hard to be in the moment.

“All I have to do is think about my mom for two seconds,” says Arden, in an on-set interview a few minutes after the scene wraps. “But I have lots of support around me and I’m getting great direction. You just kind of go to it. I think it’s so closely related to music and how musicality affects you. I mean, I have to sing Good Mother night after night after night after night. I have to sing a lot of my catalogue that deals with a bunch of crap. I’m still one step away from it. It looks worse than it feels in my body.”

Still, it’s all part of what Arden refers to as a “very giant (expletive) learning curve.” Developed with co-creators Leah Gauthier and Jennica Harper, Jann is a fascinating mix. As a comedy, it blends irreverent dialogue, squirm-inducing situations and the occasional flash of sharp satire in its tale of a faded diva named Jann Arden. The fictional Jann’s career is on a severe downswing despite the well-intentioned but awkward efforts of a bumbling long-term manager named Todd (Jason Blicker). Her younger sister Max (Zoie Palmer) is taking care of their mother, but when she learns she is unexpectedly pregnant for the fourth time she presses Jann into becoming Nora’s main caregiver. Meanwhile, Jann is desperate to revive her career, which eventually pits poor Todd against a demanding iPhone-wielding millennial named Cale (Elena Juatco), who is confident she can reverse her new client’s downward spiral if she can only convince the singer to lose her faithful but old-school manager.

Meanwhile, Jann’s love-life is also a mess, having recently been dumped by her girlfriend Cynthia (Sharon Taylor). As the series begins, she bonds with her eldest niece, Charley (Alexa Rose Steele), who is going through a crisis of her own while attending university. There is no laugh track or catchphrases or abundance of visual gags . The comedy springs from real situations even if the characters are occasionally heightened. Calgary also plays itself, with easily recognizable touchstones such as the Saddledome, the tower and Peace Bridge making appearances. There are even cameos by some of Arden’s fellow Cowtown celebs, with not all of them playing themselves in a particularly flattering manner.

The writers’ room for Jann was based in Arden’s house outside of Calgary, which gave them immediate and easy access to the singer. The situation with her mother obviously reflects real life. Arden chronicled her years as a caregiver in the 2017 memoir Feeding My Mother: Comfort and Laughter in the Kitchen as a Daughter Lives with Her Mom’s Memory Loss.. Fictional Jann’s past struggles with alcohol reflect real Jann’s past struggles with alcohol. But Arden doesn’t have a sister in real life, nor is her career in music suffering. Arden has always been open about certain aspects of her life, while others she has kept private. That includes her sexuality. But she said it was important to her to keep fictional Jann’s sexuality open.

“I have girlfriends, I have boyfriends,” she says about her character. “The writers and I, we don’t address it as anything. I’m not standing under a word. It’s interesting and I think it’s a very contemporary story, where it allows me to just be a very fluid person and make decisions just based on who I like and nothing else.”

Much of the on-set chatter among her co-stars back in October centred on how the real Jann differed from the show’s protagonist. Having Jann Arden play a character named Jann Arden was an “11th-hour” decision by CTV right before the show was greenlit, Arden says.

The situation calls for a character who has a good heart but is also delusional and self-centred and ruthlessly determined to regain her career no matter how mortifying the road back to the top may get. The flighty nature of fictional Jann provides a nice comedic counterpoint to Palmer’s practical and stable Max, whose is increasingly exasperated with her big sister.

“Sometimes the Jann on the show acts without regard for who she is affecting,” says Palmer. “Jann Arden in real life cares deeply about the people that are in her life. I think the Jann Arden on the show does too, but the way it manifests is a huge departure from her in real life. Jann is kind and caring and generous and thoughtful and mindful and our Jann on the show is a little less so.”

Steele, who plays Max’s eldest daughter Charley, agrees, although adds that the Jann in the show is often so oblivious that she becomes sympathetic by default.

“It kind of makes her endearing in a way,” she says with a laugh. “You never don’t like Jann’s character. You’re like: ‘Well, she missed the mark a little, but that’s OK.”

Arden hopes the protagonist’s faults will be a big part of the appeal of the show.

“My character is so flawed and a little bit narcissistic and much braver,” Arden says. “She just doesn’t care what people think. I do, myself. But it’s fun to play somebody who just has no gate anywhere. I just trample through life. I think people like that. They want to root for somebody who does make bad decisions but always has good intentions. It’s a magic comedy equation.”

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